Feedback: Opting out of Common Core not an option

Sep. 28, 2013

To allow local school districts to “opt out” of the Common Core standards will result in no standard.

While the Legislature is caving to rumor, innuendo and blind fear, why not allow our manufacturing and service industries to “opt out” of safety standards, auto manufacturers to “opt out” of safety and fuel economy standards and, what the heck, let’s tell doctors they no longer need to comply with standards of practice.

The willful ignorance being demonstrated by those elected is beyond comprehension. Study after study and years of practice in every endeavor conceivable demonstrates that standards increase effectiveness, improve quality and lower cost. One of the fundamental reasons other nations outpace our children in math and science is because systems that perform better rely upon common standards to provide a baseline for improvement (other fundamentals are trust, teacher training and a cultural respect for learning).

We don’t train our teachers well, we certainly don’t trust them to do what we hired them to do, and we are willing to let our children continue to suffer from the lowest expectations we can conceive of.

Chuck Fellows

South Lyon

Faith in auto industry pays off in big way

It’s rather hypocritical of Gov. Rick Snyder to state how “proud” he is of the Detroit auto industry when he endorsed the failed presidential aspirations of Mitt Romney, a candidate who declared that Detroit’s auto industry be relegated to insolvency .

Unlike Romney and our governor, in those dire times the Obama administration and Michigan citizens and unions stood by the Detroit auto industry. And it came roaring back.

And it’s the far-seeing concepts of Ford founder Henry Ford that should continue to be their example: putting people to work and enabling them to afford what they produce, and all else falls into place by way of infrastructure.

The article is discussing monthly premium increases. But premiums are only part of the cost of health care. Deductibles and co-pays also add to the cost, even though they are capped at $6,350 for an individual and at $12,700 for families.

And the premiums themselves vary widely from the “average” depending upon which plan (bronze, silver, gold or platinum) is selected, family size, age, tax credits based on your income and tobacco usage.

Chris Conover, a research scholar at the Center for Health Policy at Duke University, points out a report by the experts working for Medicare’s actuary who have reported that in the first 10 years, Obamacare will boost health spending by “roughly $621 billion above the amounts Americans would have spent” without Obamacare.

Conover estimates that the increase in national health spending attributable to the law amounts to $7,450 for a family of four between 2014 and 2022.

I conclude that Michiganders will be paying more, not less, for health care than they spent in past years.

Ed Leslie

Farmington Hills

Spread Detroit's hurt across the whole state

Judge Steven Rhodes should be told that all of Michigan benefited greatly from all the years that Detroit was the economic engine of the state, with the auto industry. Now that Detroit is on the ropes, the whole state should be asked to come to the aid of Detroit and satisfy all or most of its debt obligations. It was not their fault that the auto industry started downhill. It was lower priced autos from other places, with few benefits and nonunion wages that led to Detroit’s demise. So, Michigan spread the pain, since you enjoyed the pleasure of a bygone good economy.